


The scars we carry

by BrightDream



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-02
Updated: 2014-10-02
Packaged: 2018-02-19 13:52:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2390699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightDream/pseuds/BrightDream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for JB Appreciation Week "One Scene" </p>
<p>AU in which Jaime and Brienne are in high school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The scars we carry

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is a scene from a High School AU I have in my head.  
> There might be more of this in the future, since I have a lot of ideas about it already...
> 
> My lovely beta [ josiepug ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/josiepug/pseuds/josiepug) really saved this one, so she really deserves all the kudos.

He was sitting alone on the bench, hunched, long hair in disarray. His eyes were on the floor and his sweatshirt was the same one he had been wearing these last five days, the long brown one, sleeves too long.

From afar, next to Sansa and Margaery, Brienne watched, not really listening to what her friends were saying. They were talking about their volleyball game tomorrow and she ought to have been paying more attention, but for some reason, the focus was difficult to find.

She was still watching when Addam Marbrand approached, all smiles and affection, taking a seat on his side of the bench. She knew both boys were close friends, felt strangely relieved by the sight.

Every person deserved a friend in rough times, even if that person was the insufferable Jaime Lannister.

“… so, I was telling Ygritte that we should make that assignment about women’s role in the middle ages, but she…”

Brienne startled, Margaery’s voice interrupting her thoughts as she turned back to the girls, now talking about the History assignment that would be due next week. She would have to work on it this weekend, but unlike her friends, she would have to do it all alone. Brienne had been supposed to pair up with Jaime for it, but if that wouldn’t have happened before, it certainly wasn’t going to happen now.

Her eyes instinctively went back to him, but she didn’t find what she was expecting at all, frowned.

Jaime was facing Addam, talking in a brusque, irate manner and in return his friend had both his hands up in a calming stance, like someone trying to soothe a wild animal. He seemed to be trying to make Jaime drop whatever they had been arguing about, but Jaime snapped after every word. Before long Addam was getting up, his lips forming a “whatever, man” and stalking off.

Jaime hunched one more time, completely alone and miserable, his hair covering his face.

For a moment Brienne paused, felt something akin to pity forming in her stomach.

As quick as it had come, though, it disappeared, and suddenly it was disappointment she felt, a disappointment so strong that it was colored with anger.

He used to be so full of himself, arrogant and conceited, the Golden Lion, star of the basketball team. He had acted like he was better than anyone else in the school, better than anyone else in the world. He hadn’t looked like a person who would just give up, like a person who would sit there, lonely and pathetic, pushing his friends away, wallowing in self-misery, and she _hated that,_ hated that he wasn’t even trying.

Before she even knew what she was doing, Brienne was crossing the schoolyard, striding in his direction.  

“Bri?” Sansa called behind her, but she kept going, only stopping when she was right in front of him, staring down at his unhappy form.

“What the hell do you want?” Jaime groaned.

“We have an assignment due next week” she said “I won’t do all the work for you, so we need to discuss what you want to do about it”

He rolled his eyes and ignored her, so she insisted:

“Remember, the History assignment about medieval times?  Mrs. Stark paired us up in the beginning of the semester.”

Jaime chuckled in response to that, an odd, dark sound, and when she glanced at his expression she realized just how awful he looked, pale with dark circles under his eyes, stubble covering half his face.

“Does it look like I give a fuck?”

She hesitated at his bluntness, so he huffed, hunched further.

“Just go away, Tarth. I’m not in the mood to keep staring at your ugly face”

Brienne’s first reaction would have been to punch him, her second to do exactly as she was told and never speak to him again. She held her ground though, looking at him with loathing.

“I never knew you were such a wuss.”

His eyes flicked up at that.

“ _What_?” he snapped, surprised “Did you seriously called me a _wuss_? What does that even have to do with anything? Do you even…- You _don’t_...” his voice trembled and finally he understood she wasn’t only talking about the school work. “Don’t you _dare_ call me that after what happened. Don’t you _fucking dare_ when I…-”

“Accidents happen to people _all the time_ ” she cut him “Don’t act like it makes you special, like it makes it okay for you to act like a jerk.”

He looked absolutely revolted.

“ _All the time_?”

And he pushed back his sleeve, showed her what was left of his hand, an ugly sight of a few torn fingers wrapped in a thin layer of bandages.

“You’re not the only one with scars and traumas,” Brienne retorted, and if she sounded angry and bitter, who could really blame her“You don’t see most of us being shits about it, or whining like you do. We _get over it_ , but you, you just sit around this _damn_ bench and drive everyone away with your rudeness and your childness.”

Jaime just stared at her as an answer to that, eyes wide: like he couldn’t really believe she was confronting him about it, like that was the first time anyone had given him more than pity or fake positivity.

“I don’t…-”

She would listen to none of his pathetic denials.

“I came here to talk about the assignment” she interrupted, tone final. “Think about it and let me know.”

She straightened her backpack on her shoulders and walked off before he could say anything else, crossing the yard.

“What the hell was _that_?” Margaery asked when she came closer, she and Sansa following her on her way out. “What did you say to him?”

“Nothing” she murmured.

Brienne stuffed her hands in her pockets, trying to forget his shocked expression, trying to will her heart to calm down.

Her destroyed cheek seemed to burn on her face as she pushed the pace away from him and thought, sourly, that at least he had long sleeves, that at least he could hide.


End file.
